Modérateurs : Rod, Modérateurs
Obama Visits America’s Largest PV Array
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http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=19201DOE awarding $56 million for Concentrated Solar Power
june 16, 2012
A total of 21 projects for advancements in technology for concentrating solar power technologies are being awarded funding by the DoE.
Department of Energy Awards $56 Million to 21 Concentrated Solar Power Projects. These awards will help speed innovations in new components to lower costs, increase operating temperatures and improve the efficiency of Concentrating Solar Power systems.
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These awards will help speed innovations in new components to lower costs, increase operating temperatures and improve the efficiency of CSP systems. The 3-year applied research projects announced today will focus on achieving dramatic improvements in CSP performance, while driving progress toward the SunShot goal of 75 percent cost reduction, so that this promising technology can deliver more clean, renewable energy to millions of homes and businesses across the country.
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http://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/201 ... total.htmlWarren Buffett rachète deux centrales solaires à Total
03 Janvier 2013
Le producteur américain d'électricité MidAmerican Solar, contrôlé par la holding du milliardaire Warren Buffett, a annoncé jeudi 3 janvier le rachat de deux projets de centrales solaires de SunPower, filiale du français Total, en Californie (sud ouest des Etats-Unis).
Ces deux projets de centrales solaires, baptisés Antelope Valley Solar Projects, d'une puissance cumulée de 579 mégawatts représentent ensemble "le plus grand projet de production d'énergie photovoltaïque autorisé au monde", selon un communiqué. Les deux groupes n'ont pas précisé le montant de l'acquisition.
Les centrales solaires, dont la construction doit commencer au premier trimestre et s'achever fin 2015, fournira son énergie à la société Southern California Edison, avec laquelle des contrats de long terme ont été conclus.
Total détient 66% de SunPower
SunPower qui développe depuis quatre ans ces projets sur une surface totale de 1.307 hectares, construira les centrales, en fournira l'équipement et l'ingénierie, puis les exploitera et en assurera la maintenance pendant plusieurs années.
SunPower est une pièce importante de la stratégie de Total, qui a fait du solaire l'un de ses principaux axes de développement. Il l'a racheté l'été dernier et en détient 66% du capital, le reste étant coté aux Etats-Unis. Cette filiale est toutefois touchée par la crise du secteur photovoltaïque et a annoncé mi octobre un plan de suppression de 900 postes, essentiellement aux Philippines.
L'acheteur, MidAmerican Solar, est une filiale de MidAmerican Energy, producteur contrôlé par la holding Berkshire Hathaway de Warren Buffett.
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/inde ... y/id/24678Mammoth Solar Tower Plant in California Starts Construction This Year
March 19, 2013
Two top companies in concentrating solar have agreed to work together on the world's biggest project yet - the 500 megawatt Palen Solar Electric Generating System in Riverside, California.
The mammoth project, which consists of two, 250 MW solar towers - each 750-feet high - will serve power to 200,000 homes.
Brightsource and Abengoa have signed an agreement to finance and build the project together. BrightSource will provide the solar field technology and plant design and Abengoa will build and maintain the plants.
Because it's located in a Solar Energy Zone, Palen is close to receiving final permits. Construction is expected to begin near the end of this year and should come online in 2016, after creating more than 2,000 jobs, they say.
The original permit from the State of California was for a solar PV plant, but when Brightsource bought the project from the now-bankrupt Solar Trust of America, it applied to change the design to solar tower.
Switching to solar tower technology reduced the amount of land needed by 13%, from 4366 acres to 3800 acres, and cuts water use by 50%. That's because the two very tall solar towers make it possible to concentrate the heliostats very close together.
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http://www.evwind.es/2013/04/26/america ... ners/32160America now has more solar energy workers than coal miners
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or the U.S. as a whole, these add up to 119,000 jobs, more than the number of coal miners. The number of solar workers grew 13.2 percent in 2012, and based on the activity of the first three months of 2013, as well as big solar projects that should be finished later this year, that number should keep growing fast.
The top 10 states for solar jobs are:
California (43,700)
Arizona (9,800)
New Jersey (5,700)
Massachusetts (4,500)
Pennsylvania (4,000)
Colorado (3,600)
New York (3,300)
Texas (3,200)
Michigan (3,000)
Ohio (2,930)
http://www.evwind.es/2013/05/22/ivanpah ... lete/32922Ivanpah Concentrating Solar Power Project Is More Than 92 Percent Complete
22/05/2013 Evwind,
As the Ivanpah project nears completion, the team continues to move full steam ahead. During the months of February, March and April, more than 1,250 construction workers advanced the project to more than 92 percent complete.
To date, more than 153,990 of the project’s total 173,500 heliostats have been installed. Several stunning photos below show recent progress at the site.
In April, the Ivanpah team commenced “steam blows” at Unit 1. During steam blows, upwards of thousands of heliostats are focused on the solar boiler to achieve the desired temperatures, pressures and flow rates. The goal of the steam blows is to clear out any mill scale or debris inside the pipes so it does not damage the steam turbine and other balance of plant equipment once operational. A normal start-up process for any conventional power plant, steam blows are part of the “load ascension” program, which includes focusing an increasing number of heliostats onto the boiler and methodically raising the temperature and pressure of the steam produced.
http://www.evwind.es/2013/07/04/brights ... ject/34173BrightSource withdraws Rio Mesa Concentrating Solar Power project
04/07/2013
BrightSource Energy has finally and definitively withdrawn its concentrated solar power (CSP) Rio Mesa project in a brief note sent to the California Energy Commission (CEC).
The 500 MW CSP project, which would have consisted of two concentrated solar power plants each with a capacity of 250MW, was to be located near Blythe in Riverside County, California.
BrightSource originally purchased the project from the now bankrupt Solar Trust of America. In January of this year the company filed a suspension notice stating that it did not yet wish to withdraw the application, but would suspend it for now while the project was evaluated.
Un dossier sur le projet Ivanpahenergy_isere a écrit :
http://www.evwind.es/2013/05/22/ivanpah ... lete/32922
Je rapelle que c' est dans le désert du Mojave en Californie, et que la puissance totale sera de 392 MW.
Ivanpah Solar Power Facility
merci.mobar a écrit : ....Un dossier sur le projet Ivanpah
http://www.capcoa.org/wp-content/upload ... -Plant.pdf
.US Photovoltaic capacity has reached 10 Gigawatts
17/07/2013
The United States has now a 10 Gigawatts solar photovoltaic capacity. It is the fourth country to reach this threshold.
According to the North America PV Market Quarterly report published by NPD Solarbuzz, the United States are now the fourth country to reach the 10 gigawatts solar power capacity after Germany, China and Italy.
Since 2011, solar installations in the country encounter a strong development. This tremendous increase of solar is mainly due to several incentives from the government (local and federal) but also due to the price decrease of solar panels. In 2011, solar system’s price was about $6/Watt, today for a residential installation it is about $4.25/Watt and $3.25/Watt for a utility-scale project.
Through times, our solar market is reaching a mature stage. Experts forecast a 17 gigawatts capacity by the end of 2014. However, photovoltaic capacity in the U.S is not homogenous. Somes region are more development in terms of solar energy than other. California, for example, concentrates about 40% of the photovoltaic capacity of the country whereas the Great Plains and the Great Lakes regions have yet to develop their solar capacity.
With a growth rate of 50% since 2007, solar is one of the most prosperous source of energy in the country and this blissful growth rate is not likely to be hit by a sudden drop. Solar innovations are still emerging and researchers, worldwide, are trying to make solar photovoltaic more efficient. Every kind of applications can have its solar system, from water heating solar systems to solar street lights to light up our cities. The U.S still has to take the step of integrating solar in buildings during the construction process through windows with solar cells incorporated for example. New technologies are yet to be discover and will make easier this kind of process.
http://www.evwind.es/2013/10/03/new-ari ... down/36442New Arizona Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plant Keeps Producing Electricity After Sun Goes Down
03/10/2013 Evwind
Unlike other solar-powered electrical plants, the new Solana Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) keeps the sun’s energy working after dark to produce electricity for APS customers across Arizona.
Unlike other solar-powered electrical plants, the new Solana Generating Station keeps the sun’s energy working after dark to produce electricity for APS customers across Arizona. The three-square-mile facility near Gila Bend, Ariz., uses concentrated solar power (CSP) technology and thermal energy storage to capture the sun’s heat to generate clean, renewable electricity. (Photo: Business Wire)
Solana represents an important technological advance in solar energy production compared to the more-common photovoltaic technology, which needs direct sunlight in order to produce electricity. The three-square-mile facility near Gila Bend uses concentrated solar power (CSP) technology and thermal energy storage to capture the sun’s heat to generate clean, renewable electricity.
This technology enables Solana to produce electricity at full capacity for up to six hours after sunset, including the early evening hours when customer demand for power typically peaks in Arizona.
“Solana is a monumental step forward in solar energy production,” said Don Brandt, APS President and Chief Executive Officer. “Solana delivers important value to APS customers by generating power when the sun isn’t shining. It also increases our solar energy portfolio by nearly 50 percent. This provides a huge boost toward our goal to make Arizona the solar capital of America.”
Solana is one of the largest power plants of its kind in the world with a capacity of 280 megawatts, enough to provide energy for 70,000 Arizona homes – a city the size of Yuma. APS is purchasing 100 percent of the output from Solana, which was constructed and is owned by Abengoa Solar.
The plant’s CSP technology produces electricity by collecting the sun’s heat to create steam that turns conventional turbines. The process begins with 2,700 parabolic trough mirrors, which follow the sun to focus its heat on a pipe containing a heat transfer fluid. This fluid, a synthetic oil, can reach a temperature of 735 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat transfer fluid then flows to steam boilers, where it heats water to create steam. The steam drives two 140-megawatt turbines to produce electricity, much like a traditional power plant.
What separates Solana from other solar power plants is the ability to store the heat from the sun up to six hours for electrical production at night. In addition to creating steam, the heat transfer fluid is used to heat molten salt in tanks adjacent to the steam boilers. The thermal energy storage system includes six pairs of hot and cold tanks with a capacity of 125,000 metric tons of salt, and the molten salt is kept at a minimum temperature of 530 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the sun goes down, the heat transfer fluid can be heated by the molten salt to create steam by running it through the tanks instead of the field of parabolic mirrors.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ ... 2320131009Abengoa's Arizona Solana solar power plant enters service
Oct 9, 2013 Reuters
Spanish technology and engineering company Abengoa SA said on Wednesday the 280-megawatt Solana solar thermal power plant in Arizona entered service earlier this week.
The plant, which cost about $2 billion to build, has a thermal energy storage system that is able to generate electricity for six hours after the sun goes down.
The plant is located near Gila Bend about 70 miles southwest of Phoenix.
Abengoa said the construction of the plant, which started in 2010, created more than 2,000 jobs.
The plant consists of parabolic shaped mirrors mounted on structures that track the sun and concentrate the sun's rays to heat water into steam to power a conventional turbine.
Arizona Public Service, a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp, will buy all the power produced by the plant for 30 years. The plant will generate enough power for about 70,000 homes.
To help finance the plant's construction, the U.S. Department of Energy gave Solana a $1.45 billion federal loan guarantee.
Last week, a unit of media holding company Liberty Interactive Corp invested $300 million in the Solana project.
http://www.evwind.es/2013/10/16/first-s ... rces/36743First Solar to Build 250MW Power Plant in California for NextEra Energy Resources
16/10/2013 Evwind
First Solar, Inc. announced today it has entered into an agreement to construct a 250 megawatt (MW)AC solar power plant in Riverside County, California, for a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC.
The McCoy Solar Energy Project will be located on approximately 2,300 acres of mostly public land provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approximately 13 miles northwest of Blythe, California. Under the agreement, First Solar will provide Engineering, Procurement and Construction services, using First Solar’s cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic thin-film modules.
The project is located near the 550MWAC Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, jointly owned by a subsidiary of NextEra, GE Energy Financial Services, and Sumitomo Corporation of America, currently under construction by First Solar. An affiliate of NextEra Energy Resources also previously purchased two projects built by First Solar in Canada.
“First Solar is pleased to have this opportunity to work again with NextEra,” said Roger Bredder, First Solar’s Director of Business Development for the U.S. “And we are proud to continue providing jobs in Riverside County.”
Construction is expected to begin in late 2014, with completion in late 2016. The project will provide up to 400 construction jobs at peak operation.
The McCoy Solar Energy Project construction award reaffirms First Solar’s position as one of the world’s leading developers and builders of PV solar power systems. The company was recently ranked as the second largest contractor in the global power sector by Engineering News-Review.
et il y a 43 GW de solaire PV dans les tuyaux aux USA ! !le 18 juillet 2013 energy_isere a écrit :Les USA franchissent la capacité de 10 GW créte installé en solaire PV.
C' est le 4ieme pays à franchir cette barre aprés l' Allemagne, la Chine et l' Italie.
40% de la capacité est installée en Californie.
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http://www.evwind.es/2013/11/25/us-sola ... atts/38471US Solar Photovoltaic Pipeline Grows to 43 Gigawatts
25/11/2013, Evwind
The pipeline of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects awaiting completion within the United States has grown by 7% during the past 12 months, and now exceeds 43 gigawatts (GW), which is enough to power more than six million US households.
Whereas large projects in excess of 100 megawatts (MW) previously dominated the US PV pipeline, growth is now being driven by smaller projects up to 30 MW in size, according to the latest NPD Solarbuzz United States Deal Tracker report.
The growing project pipeline remains a key factor in driving the positive outlook for the US PV industry, which is now forecast by to become the third-largest solar PV market globally in 2014, after China and Japan.
“The increase in new solar PV projects being planned or under construction is driving double-digit annual growth forecasts for PV adoption within the United States,” said Michael Barker, senior analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. “Large-scale PV projects exceeding 20 megawatts continue to dominate the pipeline, in terms of installed capacity, stimulated by state-based renewable portfolio mandates. Projects of all sizes have become increasingly viable, due to declines in solar PV system pricing in the past year.”
